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“Olympic wrestling is unlike any other athletic activity,” Rumsfeld writes. “As you know well, it is undoubtedly the oldest of contact sports, its lineage dating back to before the first ancient Olympic competition two and a half milennia ago.”

It actually shouldn’t be that surprising that Rumsfeld is weighing in on the topic; as he notes in the letter, he wrestled in high school from 1946 to 1950, in college from 1950 to 1954 and in the U.S. Navy from 1954 to 1957.

“Wrestling has bridged world cultures. In short, the sport uniquely encapsulates the Olympic spirit. To abandon this Olympic legacy would be a tragedy for the sport and for the proud tradition of the Olympic games.”